My Updated Nail & Hand Care Essentials

Hi friends! I wrote a post about my favorite nail & hand care items last year, which you can see here, but I wanted to update it for you with some of the different products I've been using lately and supplementing my routine with. Since I've been under the weather, and dealing with some family health issues, (not to mention the actual weather has been rather crappy lately) I haven't had a chance to swatch very much but I will be back with some soon!

Press Sample | Purchased by Me

Nail Primers - I use these to prep my nails for polish, they remove all remnants of oil before a base coat.

KBShimmer pH Balancing Pre-Polish Nail Treatment is the one I've been using pretty much exclusively since I first tried it. Works really well and is affordable. $5, www.kbshimmer.com

Orly Primetime is an old favorite. I still reach for it when I run out of the KBShimmer, but I prefer the former because of the brush width. $10, www.orlybeauty.com


Base Coats/Treatments - I'm looking for stain prevention and a moderate amount of staying power from my base coat. I change my polish often so I don't need a base coat that guarantees a month of chip free nails (as if, haha).

Nail Tek Citra I Formaldehyde Free for Strong, Healthy Nails is my current favorite. I bought it on my trip to California this March while shopping with Jen The PolishAholic. I don't need strengtheners but I wanted some extra protection. This protects my nails and wears well by itself or under polish. $15, www.ulta.com

SuperChic Lacquer Bring It On! base coat is a new product I got for review not too long ago. This base coat is supposed to totally prevent staining and so far, I can say it lives up to the claims! I love that it dries matte and very fast. $6.50, www.superchiclacquer.com

Pretty Serious Force Field Protective Base Coat is a new-ish product from Pretty Serious that I bought recently. This is a good everyday type of clear base coat with great protection against staining. $8.95, www.pretty-serious.com

Butter London Nail Foundation is more of a splurge. It's a nude colored ridge-filling base coat. This is pricey so I don't use it all that often, but I do really like it for sheer colors to camouflage my nail beds a little. $19, www.butterlondon.com


Top Coats - I'm always on the hunt for the next best top coat of life. I like them to dry very fast, be shiny, and not shrink or pull at my polish. These are all great and I use them all depending on what mood I'm in.

KBShimmer Clearly On Top Quick Dry Top Coat - $5, www.kbshimmer.com

Glisten & Glow HK Girl Top Coat - $6.95, http://glistenandglow.bigcartel.com/

SuperChic Lacquer Marvel Liquid Macro - $6.50, www.superchiclacquer.com (image via laceandlacquers.com)


Cuticle Oils - This is an essential part of my life now, since I started using them religiously last year. I cannot be without it, I use it multiple times a day! These are all really good options.

Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil - The one that started it all. The 'crisp' scent is my favorite! $5.99-$19.99, www.nailcarehq.com

Sweet Baby by Donna - The recent contender for the top spot. The 'pink sugar' scent is basically crack to me! $6-$10.75, www.etsy.com/shop/SweetBabybyDonna

KBShimmer Cuticle Oil is another awesome one I've been using on and off for a long time, again in 'pink sugar'. $6, www.kbshimmer.com

Sunny's Body Products Cuticle Oil - This lady has some excellent products, the two types of oils she makes are seriously amazing. She has a monumental amount of scents to choose from, but again my pick has to be 'pink sugar'! $6-$8, www.365daysofcolorpolishes.com


Cuticle/Stain Remover - I've been laying off the cuticle removers almost completely and my cuticles seem even better than they have been so it looks like something I can go easy on or avoid completely.

Orly Cutique is a gentle cuticle remover but I mostly use it if I get some errant staining on my nails or cuticles and it does the trick, like magic! $10, www.orlybeauty.com

Hand Sanitizer - I work in a busy office with lots of people coming and going so I use sanitizer like crazy!

Fortune Cookie Soap OCD hand sanitizer is excellent, non-drying and comes in a ton of amazing scents! I can't get enough of this stuff! My favorite scent right now is Kiss, it smells like sweet tarts! $2.89-$6.49, www.fortunecookiesoap.com


Moisturizer - I cannot stand to have my hands feel dry so I'm always using some product or other on them to keep the moisture in.

Fortune Cookie Soap Whipped Cream is holy grail status for me. So creamy, really moisturizing but not greasy, sinks in quickly and a lot of fabulous scents to choose from. One of my favorites is fruity Polyjuice Potion. $10.99-$16.49, www.fortunecookiesoap.com

KBShimmer lotion, I've spoken about my love for this product in the past, great all over lotion. The 'pink sugar' scent rules again! $10, www.kbshimmer.com


Exfoliating Scrub - I'm a recent convert to scrubs, they're such a nice addition to my routine. I use them all over, elbows, hands, feet, yay!

KBShimmer Sugar Scrub is so good! I love that it's gentle but still coarse enough to actually get the job done! I also really appreciate that all the little bits dissolve and don't stick around my tub and ruin my baths ;) $10, www.kbshimmer.com


Fingernail Polish Remover - I need something to work well, fast, and not turn my hands into the sahara desert!

Onyx Professional Nail Polish Remover Moisturizing Formula Lavender, I found this in Walmart a few months ago and I just adore it. Reminds me of the one available in Sally Beauty Supply stores, but I don't have one of them close to me so this is a great option for me, plus it's really affordable. $2.48, www.walmart.com

Zoya Remove is an old favorite, I still buy this whenever I place a Zoya order or am by an Ulta, because it's a nice strong remover but is still gentle. $9.99, www.zoya.com

Oh and a side note, I do still use plain 100% acetone to clean up with and to help with stubborn glitter polish.

There you have it folks! *phew* I sure do use a lot of junk on my hands huh haha. I am still looking for a good SPF to protect my hands without making them greasy. Ugh, I despise sunscreen in all forms, but I know I need to use it. Let me know your favorite products for hand/nail care! Have you tried any of my picks?

❤ Kellie

Some of the products mentioned were provided for an honest review; others were purchased by me. Photos are from the respective companies' websites.

ILNP Summer 2015 Ultra Holos Collection Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! I hope your week is starting off well! I'm still under the weather, but I think I'm beginning to come around the bend. Summer sickness is the worst! Today I have the second summer collection from ILNP to show you, a gathering of ten ultra holographic shades.

Press Sample

I See You is a tan champagne holographic. It was very smooth and easy to apply. This is two coats.

Next is Float On, a bright oceany blue holographic. This one appears more scattered holo than linear and it's a tad more jelly-ish. This covered completely for me in three coats.

Closure is a vivid apple red holographic. It was completely opaque in two coats. Surprisingly I had a tiny bit of staining on this one so double up on your base coat to avoid that.

Here is Paper Route, a pale grey milky holographic. It was on the sheer side on the first coat, but I used a slightly thicker coat on the second and it became totally opaque. This has a stronger holographic effect than I expected for a pale shade like this.

Ten Fold is a cool toned blueish green holographic. I was expecting this to be a "money green" but it's definitely got more of a blue tinge to it. This was the sheerest of the ten, this is three coats and it's still a bit see through.

This is called Walking Home, a yummy grape purple holographic. Great formula, two coats.

Paige is a fuchsia pink holographic. Another effortless formula, two coats for full opacity.

Next is Honor Roll, a striking navy blue holographic. These dark shades really pop with that awesome mix of linear and scattered she has going on with these ultra holos. Two easy coats.

1UP is a summery lime rind green holographic. Another easy one, two coats.

And last is Missed Calls, an inky black holographic. Excellent rainbows on this one, just wow. Two coats.

These are all really great. Easy formulas, fast dry time and easy removal. You can purchase these on the ILNP website for $10 each. Tell me which one of these is your pick! I have to give it to Paper Route, such a classy shade!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

ILNP Summer 2015 Collection Swatches & Review

Hi there friends! How are you doing? I'm down for the count with a real nasty summer cold, or possibly bronchitis, but I've still got swatches to show ya! Today I am bringing you the ILNP Summer 2015 collection. There are eleven shades of amazingness in this bunch. They also put out a nine shade collection of Ultra Holos I will be showing you next, so stay tuned!

Press Sample

First is Mega (X), the fourth incarnation of Mega in the ILNP family. This is labeled 'X' for "xtreme" holo because it has an extra large holographic pigment size. It was on the thin side; I used three coats here. I was basically blinded by this polish. A must-have for holo lovers because it's very obviously holographic even indoors. If you're interested, my friend Jess did a comparison on all four versions of Mega on her YouTube channel.

Summer Crush is a bright hot pink crelly with holographic flake shimmer throughout. The shimmer really is quite rainbowy and doesn't appear just silver, which I love. Photos do not do this justice. You can still slightly see nail line at two coats, but I think that's all it needs personally. Dries just a tad satiny so use a top coat for shine.

Next is Long Walks, a grey taupe with a nice hearthy warmth to it from bronzey shimmer and soft gold flakes, with a dose of holographic glitter particles. This polish is nicely subtle, classy, and oh so chic. Three coats with a slightly thin formula.

Super Juiced is a bright blurple crelly with gallons of pink shimmer. This is an awesome color and it is so vibrant! Two coats. Needs a top coat for maximum shine.

Here comes Money Bin! This is a stunning gold holographic polish with added gold holo flakes. It's like your nails are made of doubloons! It has great coverage, opaque in two coats. The flakes can get messy upon removal, but it's worth it.

So Coral is a crazy bright neon coral crelly. It's more orange than the original China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, for comparison. This is an ultimate summer polish. It was streaky on the first two coats, I needed a third to even it out completely. I wouldn't even care if it needed another one, it's so gorgeous!

Next is Harbour Island, a greeny blue teal jelly holographic. It is sheerer than a straight holo and can be worn over other polishes. I wanted to build it up, so here is three coats. It's still on the translucent side but very juicy looking.

Kaleidoscope is another one of ILNP's ultrachrome metallic flakie polishes. This one is a combination of all the multichromes she's done, basically a rainbow of flakies. I wore one coat over Super Juiced. It has great glitter payoff so you can also build it up if you want.

Pink Mimosa is another crazy holographic with holo flakies like Money Bin, this time it's coming to you in a pale rose pink. Awesome formula, two coats here. I am in love with this polish!

Cameo is a multichrome polish that is kin to ILNP's metallic flake topper Neon Rosebud that I showed you a while ago. It shifts from a dark purpley rose to a bright greeny gold, and a few other places in between. Thin but easy to use. Three coats.

And last of this bunch is Shoreline, a soft aqua blue version of the holographic with holo flakies finish they did with Money Bin and Pink Mimosa. There is actually a purple version available too, from their Spring collection called Happily Ever After. This is two coats. It was hard to capture the flakes with my camera, but my friend Emily has some great shots of it, and the rest of the collection, here.

If you missed the presale for this collection, they will be back in stock on the ILNP website today! They are $10 per bottle, except Kaleidoscope & Cameo, which are $12.50 each. What do you think of this fun gathering of color for summer? My favorites are the foil flakie holos, but they're all quite lovely. Tell me your favorites!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.